The $1,100 buy-in World Poker Tour (WPT) Prime Championship has reached its conclusion with Zak VanKeuren taking it down for $1,162,350. He defeated Jim Casement heads-up on the finish to shut out a hard-fought victory.
9 of the preliminary 9,670 gamers returned to Wynn Las Vegas at 5 p.m. on Saturday to play it all the way down to a winner, and it was a grueling battle. There have been a number of massive stacks at the beginning of play, and solely two brief stacks.
Calvin Anderson gained this identical occasion final 12 months for $1,386,280, beating out 10,512 entrants, the most important $1,000 or larger buy-in poker match outdoors the World Collection of Poker (WSOP) in historical past. Stephen Tune was the inaugural WPT Prime Championship winner in 2022, the primary WPT World Championship competition at Wynn. He earned $712,650 in a area of 5,430 entrants.
Ultimate Desk Motion
Two gamers began the ultimate session with simply over 10 massive blinds. However there was a little bit of a shock when Justin Younger, a Las Vegas high-stakes money recreation grinder and WPT champion, ran his ace-king into pocket aces over an hour into play and misplaced his total 30 massive blind stack to Kevin Calenzo, the start-of-day chip chief, to bust in ninth place for $114,000.
Six palms later, Ralph Marquez put in his sub-five massive blind stack with queen-ten and was regarded up by the king-jack held by VanKeuren. Marquez whiffed the flop and was drawing useless on the flip after his opponent paired their king. Throughout the blink of an eye fixed, VanKeuren moved to the highest of the counts after dispatching Colin Hong with quad eights. Marquez collected $145,000, whereas Hong took $186,000.
Momentum was nicely and really with VanKeuren as he made it a hat-trick of KO’s inside one other orbit of play. Ryan Stiner wagered his short-stack with jack-ten over VanKeuren’s open. The person of the second shortly referred to as with ace-queen and made a pair of queens on the flop to oust Stiner in sixth place for $240,000.
The subsequent notable hand transpired between James Casement and Calenzo. Casement was in a world of hassle after his 23 massive blind three-bet jam with ace-queen from the large blind was regarded up by Calenzo’s Large Slick. A woman appeared on the runout, and Casement held out for a fortune-changing double-up.
VanKeuren quickly introduced the match to its ultimate 4. VanKeuren raised with king-four from the button and referred to as the 5.5 massive blind all-in from Joe Ozimok. The at-risk participant’s queen-nine wanted assist, however the deck continued to favor Vankeuren. That was till Calenzo got here from behind to crack VanKeuren’s kings on the subsequent deal for a full double. Calenzo’s stack grew to 31 massive blinds, however Vankeuren was nonetheless in agency management because the commanding chip chief.
That hand seemed to be only a blip for Vankeuren as his run-good rebooted with the elimination of Malik Zaman. VanKeuren, with seven-five, hit journeys on the flop whereas Zaman made jacks and sevens along with his jack-ten. The chips piled into the center when a ten got here in on the flip and order was restored for the runaway chip chief.
With the large blind at 2,000,000, VanKeuren held 201,000,000, with Casement and Calenzo holding 99,600 and 61,600,000, respectively. VanKeuren would proceed to extend his lead throughout three-handed play earlier than Casement gained a race to bust Calenzo in third place, a $560,000 payday.
When heads-up play started, the chip lead had grown to round 3-1, and that lead would by no means squander regardless of Casement doubling up at one level. On the 141st hand of the ultimate desk, at round 11:15 p.m. in Las Vegas, Casement went all in with king-jack and was regarded up by ace-king. One of the best hand would maintain up, leaving Casement with zero chips and a $759,850 payday. VanKeuren was formally the champion, his second main match win since July — he gained a World Collection of Poker (WSOP) on-line bracelet 5 months in the past.
The champ additionally has a runner-up end in a web-based bracelet occasion, and he mentioned after his win on Saturday that he “undoubtedly was” extra of a web-based poker participant previous to this 12 months, “however I even have a unique profession, so I have been taking part in much less on-line poker.:
That “totally different” profession he is referring to is within the well being and wellness trade. Extra particularly, as he defined in his postgame interview with PokerNews, he presents “holistic wellness teaching providers.” Balancing the poker and wellness careers is not simple, nonetheless, which he acknowledged. However he is making it occur.
“I feel simply steadiness on a weekly foundation, simply making time every week to check some poker, after which additionally make time to work on increasing my teaching enterprise,” the New York native mentioned. “Going to the gymnasium myself to remain wholesome, keep in form. I simply attempt to discover steadiness every week in these totally different areas that I am engaged on. However it’s an on a regular basis problem, time administration.”
The latest WPT Prime champion had fairly a boisterous rail cheering him on the victory, and he made it clear after ending Casement off that he appreciated the assist.
“What a rail. Not simply my buddies who have been supporting me, however just about everybody on the (ultimate desk) had and wonderful rail, and it made for an incredible setting,” VanKeuren mentioned.
That it did, champ.
WPT Prime Championship Ultimate Desk Outcomes
*Pictures courtesy of the World Poker Tour.
Senior Editor & Stay Occasions Govt
